YOU tell us the best health advice you've ever had!

We asked you to share the best pieces of health advice you have ever been given.

Here, we present the top twenty tips posted on our message boards!

Do you have a health tip of your own? If so, share it with others by clicking on the link in the blue box below to tell us on our message board!

Start reading your tips here - some are simple, some could be life-savers - all of them will make a difference to your life.

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Although you don't feel dehydrated, apparently by the time you feel thirsty you are. Drinking lots of water really does help perk you up, help to ease that headachy feeling you sometimes get and your insides feel more refreshed. I've been dieting since April and was advised to drink as much water as I can during the day because sometimes when you think you are hungry you are thirsty - and it's true!

Val

Drink LOADS of water! It lifts your mood, eradicates lethargy, makes your skin glow and most importantly helps your body in the removal of toxins. It's the cheapest health advice I can give. I'm 38 and I'm often mistaken for somebody under 30.

Holly222

Drink litres of water every day - it is a fantastic way of feeling great. Nearly everyone is dehydrated and they don't even know it!

sammyj

I dropped four stone after a major operation and being told to lose weight is the best piece of health advice I've ever been given.

rjwilliams

Remember - your body is a temple: worship it, honour it, nurture it and only allow purity to enter it. This way it will serve you well and will always flourish and thrive.

delski

Remember this is the only body you are going to get so take great care of it.

corinne007

Try not to worry and resolve problems as soon as you can.

popchas

Take garlic at the fist sign of a cold.

This really works! But I've found for it to

work it does need to be at the first sign.

kerina3

Eat ice cream to cure a hangover.

Seriously! It lowers your temperature, melts to help with rehydration, soothes your stomach and gives you a sugar boost all at the same time.

fionay

Take wild yam cream instead of HRT.

rododactulos

Watch the E numbers in all those bright red, green and yellow cold remedies: leave them alone and stick to paracetamol, hot water, lemon and honey.

rododactulos

Make some time for yourself in a busy day

popchas

A doctor told my husband to give up smoking many years ago when he had tobacco poisoning at the age of 27. His symptoms were five weeks illness with vomiting, diarrhoea and general debilitation. He now finds smoking intolerable and repulsive.

Gladys

It's taken me 50 years to find the secret to good health: happiness. If you can honestly enjoy life and light up the world with a smile it takes years off you. I have lost a number of relatives and close friends in the last year which has made me re-evaluate life. I know each day is precious and we should give so much more of ourselves to others and the knock on effect of our own lives multiplies tenfold with happiness. So get out there and do at least one childish thing a day and feel the youth and looks return!

tommigirl

Eat lots of fruit and veg

popchas

Take time to exercise - especially

in the fresh air: walk, cycle and go to the gym.

sammy_j

Take tea tree at the first sign of a cold sore.

It does have to be at the first sign for it to work though!

kerina3

Trust your instincts. I know my child better than anyone else.

If I think he is ill - he IS ill. Twice my GP has said my son was OK and within a couple of weeks he had been admitted to hospital urgently.

growlithe

Most mothers know best. On two separate occasions I had the experience of taking my son to the doctor daily over a week and insisting that he was ill - and he was eventually taken to an intensive care unit. Now when I say to my doctor that my child is not well he sits up and listens.

wwofthen

Never let the health professionals patronise you by making you feel that they know more about your child than you do! My daughter had her tonsils and adenoids out and grommets inserted in the ears earlier this year at the age of five, I had been begging my GP to refer her from the age of one year but was told that I was over-reacting. After another four years of antibiotics, perforated ear drums and general poor health I was finally referred by a locum doctor. When the consultant saw the state of my daughter he asked why on earth she had not been referred before and performed her operation with six weeks of the initial consultation.

rags007

Use garlic as a natural antiseptic

rododactulos

We were going to Kenya about eight years ago and someone said to us not to eat any salads. We stuck to that rigidly and never got any Delhi belly at all. I have remembered that advice ever since whenever we go somewhere different on holiday.

oscarosie

Take ginger for sore throats and bad chests

rododactulos

Gargle with salt water at the first sign of a sore throat.

I used to suffer from tonsillitis all the time until I had my tonsils out at the age of 29 and this was my saviour on many occasion! My mum also gargles with it every night to keep her recurrent gum inflammations at bay. The power of salt as a healing agent has been known for centuries and it still does the trick.